Logistics UK says it is ‘wrong to suggest that the current issues being experienced in the supply chain are the fault of the very industry which has kept the country supplied with everything it needs throughout the pandemic’.
Freight transport association Logistics UK has reacted strongly to attempts this week by the UK government to blame the freight and logistics sector for causing the current shortages of personnel affecting supply chains – including the UK’s fuel distribution shortage.
Speaking in response to UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s comments yesterday that the supply chain issues currently being experienced in the UK are the fault of the haulage and logistics industry, David Wells, CEO of business group Logistics UK said: “To suggest that the current issues being experienced in the supply chain are the fault of the very industry which has kept the country supplied with everything it needs throughout the pandemic is, quite frankly wrong.
“The government is well aware that that there are two recent shocks to the system which have created the current problems: 19,000 HGV drivers leaving the UK because of Covid and Brexit and the DVSA’s decision to stop the testing of 45,000 new HGV drivers during the pandemic. Rather than trying to shift the blame for the current situation onto industry, we need government to redouble its efforts to provide assistance in those areas it can control.”
Wells continued: “The first positive step would be to extend the number and duration of temporary visas recently made available to EU drivers, to enable them to ease the current pressures on the supply chain and provide enough time for the backlog of driving tests to be worked through so that UK residents can qualify as drivers. This is not uncontrolled immigration; it is a pragmatic solution to the current economic needs.
“In an effort to improve the image and accessibility of the industry, and improve recruitment levels, government must deliver on the promises it has made repeatedly over the past four years to deliver more safe and secure overnight parking spaces for HGVs across the roads network. Without changes to planning rules, little or no progress can be made on the creation of the 1,400 parking spaces the government acknowledges our industry currently needs.”
The UK government claims there is a global shortage of lorry drivers, although logistics observers point out that other European countries have not seen the same level of impact on its supply chains as seen in recent weeks in the UK, instead highlighting the UK’s insistence on a ‘hard’ Brexit as the cause of the UK’s worsened driver shortages.
Johnson told the BBC: “What we had for decades was a system where the road haulage industry was not investing in the truck stops, not improving conditions, not improving pay”, instead relying on “very hard-working people, largely from European (Union) accession countries to do that work under those conditions”, with the current “job, with that pay and those conditions”, not currently attractive.”
Asked why the government had not responded sooner to the HGV crisis, for example in response to urgent warnings in June from the UK’s Road Haulage Association (RHA) and other supply chain associations that a supply chain crisis was imminent, Johnson said: “We’ve known about shortages in road haulage long, before then. This has been a chronic feature of the way the road haulage industry has worked. What needs to happen now is people need to be decently paid, and need to have investment in their conditions.”
Johnson yesterday also claimed employers were responsible for the low uptake of emergency visas belatedly offered by the UK to overseas drivers try to fill the current acute shortages of fuel tanker drivers and within the food delivery sector. Just 127 people have applied for the government’s temporary visa scheme to recruit more fuel tanker drivers – whose absence is causing empty shelves and fuel shortages across the UK.
The prime minister told the BBC: “What we said to the road haulage industry was: ‘Give us the names of the drivers you want to bring in and we will sort out the visas – you’ve got another 5,000 visas.’ They only produced 127 names so far. What that shows is the global shortage.”
But the RHA said the prime minister’s account was false and that this was not the way recruitment worked, the Independent reported.
RHA policy chief Rod McKenzie said: “There isn’t a database of lorry drivers with names attached to them and want to work in Britain that British lorry firms can tap into. The way it works is the government advertises that short-term visas are available, Europeans think about it, decide whether they want to or don’t want to, and act accordingly.”
McKenzie and others believe the visa terms offered by the government are simply not attractive enough, because of their short-term duration – initially only offered until 24 December, with an unclear indication from government that the visas will be allowed to continue into February or March.
“Why would you give up a well-paid job in Europe to come and drive a truck in Britain for a very short period of time when you have to get a six-month let on a flat and go through all the hassle, initially to be chucked out on Christmas Eve – but now, we’re told, for a bit later?” asked McKenzie.
“It is not an attractive offer.”
Source: Lloyd’s
